‘Halloween’ Among Variety and Fandango’s Most Anticipated Movies of 2018

Filming of thenew Halloween movie, executive produced by John Carpenter, begins this week, and while excitement for the return of Michael Myers will only increase over the next 10 months, the film is rightfully among the most anticipated movies of 2018 according to recent polls of critics at Variety and moviegoers at Fandango.

In a roundup of the Most Anticipated Movies of 2018 as decided by a dozen Variety critics from around the world, Halloween makes the list along side the upcoming Suspiria remake, of which Variety says, “Two ’70s standard-bearers have fallen into the right hands. Directors David Gordon Green and Luca Guadagnino both did excellent work in 2017 with Stronger and Call Me by Your Name, respectively, and their sensibilities are well-suited to genre revivals. Green’s Halloween will likely forego the revisionist shocks of the Rob Zombie reboots in favor of a more faithful evocation of the original.”

Elsewhere, over at Fandango, moviegoers themselves were polled online about their most anticipated movies of 2018, with Halloween chosen as the second Most Anticipated Horror Thriller of the year, behind only the untitled third Cloverfield film. Rounding out the Top 5 in Fandango’s horror category of most anticipated is The Purge: The Island in third place, Insidious: The Last Key (now in theaters) in fourth, and A Quiet Place (written and directed by John Krasinski and starring Emily Blunt) in fifth.

Fandango fans also ranked Nick Castle’s return as Michael Myers in Halloween as the fifth Most Anticipated Movie Villain of 2018, following Josh Brolin as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War in first place, Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in The Crimes of Grindelwald in second, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther in third, and Jessica Chastain as the yet-to-be-revealed villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix in fourth.

As previously reported, Nick Castle will once again play Michael Myers in the new Halloween film. Stunt performer and actor James Jude Courtney has also been cast to play Myers.

Andi Matichak will play Allyson, Laurie Strode’s granddaughter in the new film, with Judy Greer set to play Laurie’s daughter Karen Strode, and of course Jamie Lee Curtis returning to once again reprise her role as Laurie Strode.

Filming begins this week in Charleston, South Carolina.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

Master of horror John Carpenter will executive produce and serve as creative consultant on this film, joining forces with cinema’s current leading producer of horror, Jason Blum (Get Out, Split, The Purge, Paranormal Activity). Inspired by Carpenter’s classic, filmmakers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted a story that carves a new path from the events in the landmark 1978 film, and Green also directs.

Halloween will be produced by Malek Akkad, whose Trancas International Films has produced the Halloween series since its inception. Green and McBride will executive produce under their Rough House Pictures banner.

As I’m sure you are well aware, 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween. It is also worth noting that the film’s release date happens to be Michael Myers’ birthday (in 1957), according to the original franchise canon. Myers would be 61 on Halloween night in 2018.